At Zoo Atlanta

Zoo Gestures 1

Zoo Gestures 2

Hello, everybody!!! Let me tell you all about the time that I went to Zoo Atlanta for a class during the spring quarter. I was taking Animal Anatomy at SCAD Atlanta, and during the first five Saturdays of the quarter we would go out to the zoo to draw the animals. I suck at drawing animals, and so I was hoping that this class would help me, but I had no idea that my approach to drawing the Vampire Mouse comic would be vastly altered because of this class. I definitely look at animals in a whole different light. For each trip at the zoo we would be focused on one of the four important elements to drawing animals until the last visit: Gesture Drawings, Construction Drawings, Muscle Anatomy, and Light & Texture. It was a fun experience to get out of the school to draw, which I absolutely love to do, and I certainly wish that I did it more often. Best of all, we got to go in for free, which is always a good thing especially for an art student.

Construction Drawing 1

Construction Drawing 2 

Construction Drawing 3

Construction Drawing 4

Construction Drawing 5

The second visit to the zoo, where I was focusing on the animal construction, was the most interesting because I began experiencing what my classmates had experienced during the first visit. When drawing a zoo animal it requires the artist to either sit or stand for a long period of time, and that does catch other people's attention. So every so often I would have people just looking over my shoulder watching me draw, and I just pretended that they weren't there unless they say something to me. Most of the time they didn't talk except amongst themselves about my drawings unless I was in the Reptile House then kids would ask me questions and sometimes weird ones such as "are you drawing the animals?" However, whether they were talking amongst themselves or spoke to me directly everyone had only positive things to say about my work. 

Some of my favorite animals to draw were the gorillas because they were always doing something interesting, and there were times that I could've stayed and drawn the gorillas all day. People kept me from doing that, however, because the gorillas are probably the second most popular animal at Zoo Atlanta. The pandas are the most popular. A large flock of people around a given animal tended to obstruct my view that it was difficult to draw sometimes.

Muscle Mass Drawing

Muscle Mass Practice

The most difficult of the four important aspects of drawing an animal for me was the muscle anatomy, and frankly, I still don't think I have it down. We practiced muscle anatomy on the third visit, and I mainly went to animals that were easily muscle defined such as elephants and giraffes. I steered clear of feathers and hair except for the gorilla since I wanted to challenge myself, but nonetheless my drawings that day sucked. This was the one day where no one talked to me about my drawing or talked amongst themselves, and I was glad. There was nothing positive to say about them. I was not looking forward to critiquing the drawings, and the critique went as I had expected. However, my professor, Doug Dabbs suggested that I take the muscle anatomy of the dog on his power point and practice the major muscles. I did just that. First, I practiced with the dog before moving onto redrawing my giraffe. It's not great, but it's better than before.

Zoo Atlanta Elephant

Light & Texture Drawing Elephant

Zoo Atlanta Kangaroo

Light & Texture Drawing Kangaroo

Zoo Atlanta Red Panda

Light & Texture Drawing Red Panda

Zoo Atlanta Panda

Light & Texture Drawing Panda

Zoo Atlanta Gorilla

Light & Texture Drawing Gorilla

For our fourth visit to Zoo Atlanta we were studying Light & Texture, and finally, we were able to take what we learned from the last three visits and create the whole animal, fur and all. I do mean fur because I mainly focused on furry animals except for the elephant, which I partly chose to challenge myself, but also because I loved the light and shadow that I got from him. I chose the five animals that I wanted to draw and texture, and I took a picture of each one since I knew that I couldn't finish them at the zoo especially when my ink pen was running low. The Kangaroo was the only animal that I was able to finish at the zoo. The good thing was that we had a work day in class to work on these drawings. I think that the gorilla was the most successful, which is saying something because it was tough to tell with that picture what was dark and what was light. However, the professor gave me a tip that helped me immensely, which was before I begin drawing an animal create a smaller version first and shade in the parts of the shapes that the light isn't hitting. That way you'll already know where your lights, grays, and darks are. I did have to redraw the gorilla, but it was worth it.

Molarc, the Blood-Thirsty Beast

Animal Research 1

Animal Research 2

Animal Research 3

Animal Research 4

Animal Research 5

Our final visit to Zoo Atlanta was researching different animals and their actions for a character design of an animal that doesn't exist...or at least I hope not. Prof. Dabbs gave us a story account about a research team who came upon a Siberian village that was ransacked and all of its inhabitants were killed, and we were supposed to come up with an animal design based on the account's clues. The clues are has followed: Strong enough to level trees; has claws; has long, thick hair; walks on four legs; there's a canal shaped engraving behind the tracks; it spits out paralytic film; punctures holes on the left side and right side of a person's temple; and it burrows underground. So we had quite a task ahead of us. I already had some designs in mind when I went to the zoo, and so I mainly focused on reptiles and large animals while also researching smaller animals that are known for digging. This was the one time that I never drew a gorilla. I would have liked to have drawn the Sun Bear since it would have been perfect as far as an animal with strength is concerned, but like the tiger, it was always sleeping whenever I showed up. I still drew the tiger though.

Molarc Design #1

Molarc Design #2

Molarc Design #3

These were the first three designs for the creature who would later be called Molarc, a made up name that sounded sinister. Actually there was another design that resembled the third except it included longer fangs and Kangaroo looking ears, but I redrew it because the ears just made him look like a joke when he needed to be scary. Each design had something going for it especially the scary aspect, but I felt that the third design was a little more closer to the account although there were some things that I hadn't figured out yet such as paralytic film and the digging. One of the things that kept coming up during the critique for the third design was his head being reptilian when this story takes place in Siberia, a cold region. And I knew that going into this, which was why I covered his entire body except for his head with fur to keep him warm. The class felt that it looked more Frankensteinish, body parts from different animals, and so they suggested perhaps showing the fur taper off on his legs and tail while keeping the legs and tail reptilian. One classmate suggested showing that his skin is diseased. The professor suggested that I should shrink the claws to make them look as they're for digging instead of attacking. I took everyone's suggestions into account and created the final design.

Molarc's Head

Molarc Final Design

The design changed a lot, and perhaps more so in the head and tail. I was studying two creatures that cannot be found at Zoo Atlanta: a scorpion and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I decided to go with a Tyrannosaurus' head to make him a little less snake like, which meant his fangs were gone, but he wouldn't lose any of his terrifying demeanor, and the scorpion's tail was perfect in regards to how he is attacking people. However, one more thing remained, the paralytic film. Well, during my studying of different animals I came across a frog that squirts blood out of its eye to freak its enemies out in order to get away, and so I decided to utilize that idea except it would be paralytic film instead of blood. Unfortunately, that idea didn't go very well during the critique. Aw, well.

The Molarc's Attacking tail

This was a very tough concept to come up with because the Molarc is so top heavy that I wasn't certain if he could perform such a feat. My only research evidence that a creature as heavy as Molarc is could perhaps do this tail attack was during my last visit at the zoo. I was studying the panda when it suddenly did a somersault, and a quite a number of them too. The Molarc wouldn't be able to complete a somersault, but it may be able to start one without finishing. 

Muscle Anatomy of Molarc

Construction Drawing of Molarc

I wasn't going to show this actually, but I just wanted to say that Prof. Dabbs thought that the construction drawing of Molarc was the best construction that I'd done. Yes, improvement!!! Even the muscle anatomy was an improvement although he would've liked it if I had added muscles to the tail.

The Vampire Mouse #2

The Vampire Mouse #2_The Price of Love Part 2

In the spring of 2011 I began work on the two part script for the origin story of the Vampire Mouse entitled The Price of Love although its original title was The Cost of Love, but I changed it. I would begin the pencils that summer. Finally, after two years of work the origin story of the Vampire Mouse is complete. Although I have unveiled the pages of part 2 on Smackjeeves the mini comic will officially be released next Thursday on this blog post. I hope that you'll all be there to read it.

I am still working on the script for the third installment, but it's title has officially been chosen. The Vampire Mouse #3 will be called Fate Be Changed, and it is slated to be released in 2014, hopefully in April, but that is subject to change.

Final Thoughts

I admit that this is a bit weird to do it this way, but the next section is depressing, and I can't in good conscience put the Final Thoughts section at the end. So just for today I'll end this blog entry differently. Sunday, August 25th is my mom's 60th birthday, which is ironic because she has been saying that she was 60 for years. I guess, now that she is 60, she'll be saying that she's 65. I hope that she has a Happy Birthday!!!!

Next weekend is Dragon Con, and for the fifth year in a row I plan to attend. I'll have all the Dragon Con news loaded with pictures for you all.

In Memory

Before I sign off I would like to take this time to remember two people that the world lost this past week that really affected me in different ways even though I've only met one of them. Former Disney actor Lee Thompson Young died Monday, August 19th of an apparent suicide at the age of 29. He was the title character in Disney's television show The Famous Jett Jackson (1998-2001), and he was a supporting character in TNT's Rizzoli and Isles. He also made some guest appearances in Smallville as Victor Stone also known as Cyborg. I grew up watching him on the Disney Channel, and it was one of my favorite shows, which still holds a special place in my heart. He had the type of screen presence that makes you want to root for him, and if you're not then something is wrong with you. He was a great actor and will be missed.

Writer Elmore Leonard died Tuesday, August 20th of complications from a stroke at the age of 87. He was an accomplished mystery and crime writer whose works have been adapted into several movies such as Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, and 3:10 to Yuma. The FX television show Justified is based off of his novels Pronto and Riding the Rap and his short story Fire in the Hole. In January of this year he and his son Peter Leonard visited SCAD Atlanta to give a lecture, but they also gave a writing workshop at Ivy Hall, SCAD Atlanta's Writing Department. I was taking Visual Storytelling II at the time, and my professor, Shawn Crystal is a huge fan of Elmore Leonard. Shawn was able to get his Visual Storytelling class into that writing workshop. Thanks to mere coincidence I was sitting right next to Elmore Leonard at the huge dining room table. It was a fantastic experience that has taken on a whole new meaning after his death seven months later.  He will be missed, but his works will continue to inspire other writers and storytellers for a long time to come.

Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody.